Legend Of Cipher: The Belkan War
by Garuda 1 Talisman
Summary: Book One of the Legend of Cipher Trilogy. 20 Year old Matthew Bishop is a young mercenary pilot that trails a path across the skies during the Belkan War. Follow his story in Legend of Cipher: the Belkan War


**Okay first of all I'm back after an extremely long wait. That said I think I can do much better as a writer than the piss poor excuses for fics I have written. So I have deleted all three of the previous ones. I have decided to rebirth the Legend of Cipher series and will start it back at Ace Combat Zero and progress it across all three of the PS2 Ace Combat games. I have fics drafted but unfinished for Naruto, Rosario+Vampire and Mass Effect. I will get to those eventually but I don't want to burn myself out multi-tasking on each one at the same time. So here we go with the first chapter of my newest reborn fic, Legend of Cipher: The Belkan War.**

'_For after all what is man in nature? A central point in between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either.' Blaise Pascal_

_2 April, 1995 – Valais Air Force Base, Ustio_

…. It was a cold and snowy day.

Snow fell upon the runway of a military base nestled into the Tyrann Mountain range in the winterland region of the Republic of Ustio. This base was the last line of defense against the country of Belka. It had begun a rapid expansion after the discovery of natural resources, such as oil, was reported. The Belkan military forces had occupied the majority of the country other than the mountain ranges. Ustio's military was virtually destroyed so commanders resorted to hiring mercenaries to bolster its air force. One of these squadrons was the Ustio Air Force's 6th Air Force, 66th Air Force Unit named Galm Squadron.

On the morning of the second, base commanders at Valais picked up a squadron of Belkan bombers inbound towards the airbase with the certain goal of attacking and destroying it to secure military superiority across the entire country.

A low whine could be heard in the hangars as the doors opened revealing two F-15C Eagles, the premier air superiority fighter of its time, as well as two separate groups of four F-5E Tiger II fighters.

The F-5's taxied out to the runway as clouds drifted aimlessly over the base, snow falling gently across the airfield. Each Tiger then began its roll down the runway before climbing into the air and heading to the northwest.

The two Eagles settled on the runway, the quiet howl of their Pratt & Whitney F-100-200 afterburning turbofan engines resounding as both pilots went over their pre-flight checks.

As soon as both finished and received clearance for takeoff, the quiet howl turned into a deafening roar as the afterburners of each craft engaged sending the forty-five thousand pound aircraft screaming down the runway and into the sky.

Both craft banked 15 degrees as they turned northwest in the direction of the incoming bombers and the fellow outbound mercenary squadrons.

"This is Base Command. Looks like all you boys managed to get up. Galm 1, Galm 2, maintain present course." ordered the Valais Base Commander.

"This is Galm 2 roger that." answered the pilot of the red winged Eagle.

"Galm 1 roger, proceeding with mission. You better have our pay ready and waiting for when we get back." A young male voice replied from the cockpit of the blue winged Eagle.

The base commander laughed before replying, "That's only if we both make it out of this alive."

"Be ready to pay up. We'll be back before you know it." Galm 2 answered.

The two planes made the final turn to begin engagement of the Belkan Bomber force that was sent to destroy Valais Air Base. The air base was the last line of defense and the only thing in the way of Belkan domination of Ustio.

Matthew Bishop looked at his radar in the cockpit of his F-15 seeing both the other mercenary squads hired by Ustio as well as the Belkan bomber squadron and escort fighters.

"Galm 1 to Galm 2, Pixy spread out and engage enemy fighters. If any try to break away from the combat zone leave them be." Matthew called out to his wingman as the Ustio Mercenary Squadrons began engagement. Matthew was young by most standards. Only 20 years of age though he spoke with a sense of command and leadership like his father had.

"Roger that Cipher. I'll leave the bombers to you." With that Pixy banked his plane over, breaking away from Cipher and proceeded to streak towards the nearest enemy fighter, a Belkan F-5E Tiger II.

"Pixy, Fox 2" A single sidewinder flew off the rail rocketing towards the outmatched Belkan aircraft before slamming into the left wing at the connection to the fuselage sending the plane and its pilot spiraling to the snowy mountains below.

The air battle began in full force, missiles and gunfire crisscrossing the sky like a deadly performance. Bishop flew through the missile trails and tracer rounds effortlessly as he opened fire on a B-52H Stratofortress with his M61 Vulcan 20mm Gatling gun. The cannon rounds shredded through the fuselage near the rear of the plane ripping the tail from the rest of the plane sending it nosing over flat spinning before finally smacking into the side of a mountain in a fiery explosion none of its crew able to eject.

'One down, 9 to go' Bishop calculated in his head as he set his sights on the second bomber.

"Cipher," Pixy called out, "I've heard stories about you. They say you've got what it takes to win."

Cipher just smiled in response as he flew through a bomber formation chasing after a Belkan F-4E Phantom II fighter that had flown into his sights. Cipher sighted the fighter in his gun sight and let loose a 2 second burst of 20mm cannon rounds. The cannon rounds shredded through the J79 turbofan engines causing the wounded plane to belch smoke. As the plane pitched over the two canopies on the stricken aircraft blew off and the pilot and his radar intercept officer ejected out.

Cipher then banked around and locked onto another Belkan bomber, a BM-335, and fired an AIM-9L Sidewinder which rocketed off the rail and flew towards the bomber's number 3 engine. Upon contact with the engine, the warhead in the nose of the missile which carried a charge that exploded and sheared off the entire wing causing the aircraft to roll over to the right, spiraling out of control towards the snow covered mountains.

Without missing a beat he then locked onto a third bomber and let fly another Sidewinder which flew up into the bomb bay annihilating the bomber and its crew.

Cipher scanned for targets and saw the bombers in the rear of the formation trailing smoke and fire as they were shot down by Pixy. The last of the bomber escorts were downed by another squadron from Valais leaving only four bombers left in the air.

Cipher zoomed out past the bomber gunner's range and locked onto all four with his AIM-120B AMRAAM active radar guided missiles.

As the gunners tried to shoot at passing Ustian fighters, Cipher let all four of his AMRAAMs loose on the bombers. Each missile rocketed towards its target at four times the speed of sound, faster than the gunners could track. Fireballs appeared before pieces of each plane were seen sailing towards the mountain sides.

He then flew over each smoking debris field confirming each kill before radioing the fellow Ustian fighters and Valais.

"This is Cipher, all bombers destroyed. Galm team is RTB." Cipher called out as he banked turning towards Valais Air Base with Pixy on his wing.

"Cipher, I get a feeling me and you are going to get along just fine," Pixy commented over the radio as they flew back. "Buddy."

Cipher laughed responding, "It's good to have friends."

**A/N: Short chapter I know but the chapters will get longer as the story progresses. So Follow, Favorite, Review and all that good shit and I'll ya'll in the next LoC chapter.**


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